MPAA sues Torrent and Usenet search sites

By Steve Malone

Posted on 28 Feb 2006 at 11:15

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has opened up a new front in its war against illegal downloaders. The Hollywood studios' trade association has started legal proceedings against search engines and Usenet news groups.

Among the sites on the receiving end of the MPAA writs are Torrentspy.com and Isohunt.com. The organisation claims that they 'facilitate infringements of
copyrighted works by millions of people by providing searchers with the locations to find pirated movies'.

The MPAA lawyers have also hit NZB-Zone.com, BinNews.com and DVDRs.net that provide indexes of UseNet posts. As with the Torrent-based search engines, the MPAA claims that the sites make it easier for downloaders to find illegal material. The Association says that NZB-Zone currently offers over 3.3 million files, including Star Wars Episode III, Wedding Crashers, Chronicles of Narnia, 40 Year-Old Virgin and King Kong; BinNews.com offers files for over 3,000 movies; and DVDRs.net has over 37,000 members.

The MPAA move appears to be an attempt to extend the Grokster judgement to sites that merely point to places where the files are. In that case the Supreme Court said any company's technology that has 'the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright...is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties'. UseGroups and search engines have always claimed the same freedom as ISPs and the mail service in that they have no idea what content is using its services. However, the MPAA is claiming that the sites do know what their technology is being used for and is therefore liable.